U.S. potato growers look to Mexico
By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE — U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and 16 of her senatorial colleagues recently sent a letter to President Barack Obama encouraging him to “continue to develop a strong and growing trading relationship with Mexico” which could indirectly boost the Maine potato industry.
For more than a decade, the United States government and the domestic potato industry have worked with their counterparts in Mexico to develop a market access agreement that would allow for U.S. fresh potato exports to reach all Mexican consumers.
“Despite an agreement signed by Mexico in 2003 that provided a clear timeline for expanding market access,” wrote the senators, “U.S. fresh potato exports continue to be limited to an economic zone extending only 26 kilometers south of the U.S.-Mexico border.”
The senators feel that every effort has been made to provide officials in Mexico with “valid science and assessment of risk” to advance the process of expanding U.S. potato access.
“In fact, both the Mexican Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food and the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture supported a 2011 international expert science panel tasked with evaluating phytosanitary concerns that ultimately rendered an opinion clearly establishing a path forward for expanding market access for U.S. potatoes in Mexico,” the senators wrote in their Dec. 21 letter to the president.
According to Tim Hobbs, director of development and grower relations for the Maine Potato Board, while Maine potatoes would likely not be shipped to Mexico because of the high cost, Maine could reap benefits in another way.
“A lot of western potatoes are grown and need a place to go,” said Hobbs. “For example, there was one state that increased their production this year by almost as much as the total production in the state of Maine and those potatoes didn’t necessarily have a home. When they don’t have a home, they come east.
“We support the efforts for export so that we can get that production out of the West anywhere else but here because when those potatoes come east, it really affects the price our growers get and market availability,” he said. “If you have western states ship more of their potatoes into Mexico, it would likely create a demand for potatoes out in that area that growers in the East could fill.”
Hobbs praised the senators for taking “more significant action” by writing to the president and is optimistic that a trade agreement will be reached.
“It probably will,” he said, “it’s just a matter of when.”
Mexico is the United States’ third largest trading partner.
“Agriculture is a significant element of this strong and growing economic relationship,” wrote the senators. “We hope that Mexico’s participation in the Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations and their commitment to expanded trade as a part of other trade agreements are true demonstrations of their willingness to work cooperatively to resolve longstanding U.S.-Mexico trade issues, including access for fresh U.S. potatoes.”
